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Topic: DRMP for Richifield Utah (Read 1217 times)

There's still time to comment on the Draft Resource Management Plan for Richfield. Take Action Now!

The Richfield field office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 2.1 million acres of public lands in central Utah, including the iconic landscapes of Factory Butte, the Henry Mountains, and the canyons of the Dirty Devil River and Robbers Roost country. Alarmingly, the BLM's draft resource management plan (RMP) for this area would slash proposed wilderness and adopt an ORV plan with designated routes in BLM-inventoried roadless areas and even Wilderness Study Areas.

Please send your comments to the BLM today! You can use SUWA's online Advocacy Center to send your personalized comments to the appropriate decision makers at the BLM by clicking here. The deadline for comments is January 23, 2008.

In order for the BLM to make substantive changes to their newly proposed management plan, they need to hear substantive comments from the public on the plan's proposed management initiatives. If you've visited places like Factory Butte or the Henry Mountains, if you've floated the Dirty Devil River and hiked its canyons, or if you've ever been disturbed at your favorite quiet spot by the roar of off-road vehicles, please write to the BLM and tell them about your experiences. Make your comments as specific as possible. Share with the BLM any experiences you have had in specific places and tell them that the Richfield Draft RMP fails to adequately protect these places. Especially salient are reports of user conflicts such as the drone of motors disturbing the peace of a hike in Robber's Roost country.

What: The Richfield BLM District is revising their Resource Management Plan (RMP), this plan will dictate the future of motorized recreation on nearly 54 million acres of BLM lands in the greater Richfield area, extending east as far as the Henry Mountains (Hanksville). The Richfield BLM office has developed five alternatives, each with varying components such as the amount of trails it closes to motorized use. In some areas of the RMP, nearly 3/4 of the trails would be closed to motorized travel under an anti-motorized radical alternative. The U4WDA has spent countless hours reveiwing the RMP data in order to help YOU make a comment, don't let your voice and opinion go unheard!

When: Comments are due by January 23rd, 2008. If your mailing them, send them a couple of days early.

Why: If we don't, existing access to countless historic trails could be lost, they are slated for closure under several alternatives of the new RMP. Additionally the BLM has determined portions of land having "Wilderness Characteristics", many of which are part of SUWA's Redrock Wilderness Act before Congress. We need to fight this here. Don't let them push this into the RMP. These areas could become "fake" Wilderness, despite the fact they currently have existing and open roads right through them. Access to these areas would be lost forever!

How can you help: Take 20-30 minutes of your time and follow these steps.

Q: Why don't you just list the email address to submit comments?A: Comments need to be substantive! Simple comments like, "please keep the roads open" or "I support OHV recreation" are worthless and will be discarded. Take a few minutes to read through the information provided, and then submit your own comments.

Q: Why don't we use an automated "letter writer" or an online form letter to submit comments?A: Automatically generated comments & form letters are worthless! These comments are counted as ONE comment even if 10,000 people send in the email. The comments need to be personal, unique, and informed.

Q: Isn't this a little late notice?A: Information about the RMP has been available for months all over the Internet, in U4 publications, and on numerous online forums. But it's not too late! Submit your comments today!

U4WDA hosted a "comment letter meeting" to help those in the motorized recreation community write effective comment letters...

One of the attendee's created a short video of the presentation.. It will be hosted here for a few days until we find a permanent location for it. (there are some spelling and grammar issues with this... but the value of the presentation is in the information)